Mobile wireless communication devices, such as a wireless cellular telephone or a wireless enabled computer tablet, can provide a wide variety of communication services including, for example, voice communication, text messaging, internet browsing, and audio/video streaming. Different communication services on mobile wireless communication devices can use one or more different communication protocols that transmit and receive in separate or overlapping bands of radio frequency spectrum. Different bands of radio frequency spectrum are allocated for different services, some strictly licensed to particular wireless operators, while other frequency bands can be open for shared common use. Ideally transmissions in one frequency band do not interfere with the reception of transmissions in another frequency band; however, the advent of mobile wireless communication devices that include multiple wireless transceivers, each configured to operate with a different communication protocol and placed in relatively close proximity to each other in the mobile wireless communication device can result in interference between them. A variety of communication protocols have been developed (and continue to be developed and refined) by different national and international standards organizations including the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocols by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The protocols can specify which radio frequency bands to use and how to transmit and receive radio frequency signals in the radio frequency bands to access wireless communication networks that offer a variety of services.
Mobile wireless communication devices offer short range connections to wireless accessory devices, medium range connections to wireless network access points, and long range connections to cell towers, thereby providing flexibility and near ubiquity for connecting a user to a wide array of communication services. For example, voice communications can be realized over a 3G communication link using a GSM protocol or using a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) packet protocol through a wireless local area network connection. Some mobile wireless communication devices can support seamlessly transferring a communication link between connections that use different protocols. Several national and international standards organizations develop and specify communication protocols that can enable consistent performance and compatibility between products provided by different manufacturers. While each communication protocol can require that transmissions by mobile wireless communications devices using the protocol be restricted to not transmit above a defined power spectral density mask, i.e. keep radiated transmit power below certain levels across different radio frequency bands, current mobile wireless communication devices include receivers capable of detecting radio frequency signals at very low power levels. With a relatively high power transmitter located close to a sensitive receiver in the same mobile wireless communication device, providing adequate isolation between them can prove quite challenging.
Isolation between a transmitter and a receiver co-located in the same mobile wireless communication device can use specific antenna design, shielding, filtering and placement to minimize receiving interfering radio frequency power in one receiving antenna from another transmitting antenna. Current mobile wireless communication devices can be quite compact in size, and the maximum physical distance possible on such small devices between a transmitter and receiver can limit the amount of radiated radio frequency power loss resulting from antenna placement. Thus there exists a need for a method to mitigate interference between radio frequency transceivers placed in the same mobile wireless communications device.